The busy summer season has not even arrived yet, and American Airlines is already canceling flights.
According to Simple Flying, the Fort Worth-based airline is expected to cut more than 50,000 flights throughout the summer, with the months of June and July being particularly hit hard.
American Airlines said that dropping these flights is considered standard as it finalizes its summer schedule. Other airlines, such as the German company Lufthansa, also announced it would cut flights by more than 30,000.
Lufthansa has been experiencing additional workforce problems after Frankfurt and Munich airports were completely shut down.
Staffing shortages have plagued the company, and there was an additional headache of a ground staff walkout only last week.
According to SimpleFlying, American Airlines released a statement to the Dallas Business Journal on the situation:
“We are now publishing our final schedule approximately 100 days in advance, which is in line with how we adjusted our schedule in 2019 prior to the pandemic. American is proud to offer customers the largest network of any U.S. airline through the summer, with, on average, more than 5,500 daily departures.”
Chicago O’Hare Airport, with 11,835 flights cut, is supposed to be hit the hardest by the new American Airlines schedule, although many different company hubs will be impacted. Dallas will have 10,099 flights cut.
Passenger caps, which limit the number of passengers who can pass through an airport, are also expected at certain European airports, notably London’s Heathrow Airport and Amsterdam’s Schiphol, both of which imposed these restrictions last year during the summer months.
Pre-pandemic levels of summer travel are expected to be reached this season, with a report from the International Civil Aviation Organization saying that travel has already reached 80% of levels prior to the pandemic.
The desire for travel was not anticipated to bounce back as quickly as it did, SimpleFlying reported. As a result, various airlines have been met with a demand that they cannot keep up with.
According to a report from Cirium, which specializes in aviation analytics, there were almost 50,000 cuts by American Airlines between May and September of last year, with the highest amount in July at 19,982.
